State’s marijuana czar says ex-Microsoft pot-preneur could end up in prison

The state’s “pot czar” Mark Kleiman wrote in his blog last week that Jamen Shively, the ex-Microsoftee who wants to create a national and international marijuana network, might want to prepare for time in a federal pen.

Screen grab of Mark Kleiman at the Australian Institute of Criminology in 2013.

“Mr. Shively has now painted a target on his shirt-front. Should he actually engage in the business of growing or selling cannabis, or owning businesses that do so, he has a very good chance of a long, all-expenses-paid vacation at the expense of federal taxpayers,” Kleiman wrote.

Kleiman a UCLA professor who leads the company – Cambridge-based Botec Analysis Corp. – that won the state contract to advise the State Liquor Control Board on how to develop a legal marijuana market. The board has since published a draft of those rules.

Who’s Kleiman, anyway?

The professor was a surprising pick (it seemed at first, anyway), because he has been critical of legalizing marijuana in pretty much exactly the way Initiative 502 does. He also seemed pretty skittish about taking on the federal government’s laws against pot.

“No matter what argument you use, the fact remains that the federal Controlled Substances Act makes it a felony to grow or sell cannabis,” he wrote in 2010 when California was trying to legalize.

Nevertheless, Kleiman went back on the offensive against what he takes to be a wild-eyed entrepreneur just asking for trouble with the feds and (not inconsequentially, though he doesn’t mention it) possibly goading the Department of Justice into attacking the state’s legal pot efforts.

Kleiman wrote:

“It was inevitable that the legalization of cannabis would attract a certain number of insensate greedheads to the industry. And I suppose it was also inevitable that some of them would be terminally stupid and self-destructive.

“If, when he says that he’s been smoking cannabis for a year and a half, he means that he’s been stoned continuously over that period, it’s barely possible that he doesn’t understand the risks; in that case, he might be sincerely misguided.”

“We are moving forward. The states of Washington and Colorado are leading the way. We have waited long enough for some sort of a green light from Washington, D.C., telling us that it is okay to proceed.

“In fact, the silence from our nation’s capitol has been deafening.

“We are moving forward with our plans to build a national and eventually international network of cannabis businesses, spanning the production, processing, distribution and retail of cannabis and cannabis products. Our network will span both the medical and the social use cannabis markets.”

Do you think Shively is pushing his pot-luck?

Yes - Given half a chance the feds will make an example of him.

No – Either he’ll find a sweet-spot between state and federal laws.

No - The feds are not likely to take on a high-profile fight over marijuana right now.

She guessed federal officials will go after groups such as the one led by Shively based on her experience with the medical marijuana market, she expects the government will get aggressive with the recreational market.

The feds “are backed into the corner and they are going to get more vicious and violent before they realize they’ve lost,” she said.

Kleiman concludes his rant:

“The firm’s website explains how they’re going to conspire to commit federal felonies while remaining “completely legal”: “We are committed to building our business under the assumption that the federal government will permit us to operate” wherever cannabis is legal under state law.

“Tell me: How many legs does a lamb have, if you are committed to building your business under the assumption that the tail is a leg?”